Gambling on golfing will soon be legal: HOORAY!!!!

A few months from now, being right about such things will really matter. But this is just a test, a trial run of a digital gaming service that de Knijff (pronounced Kn-AYF) plans to launch in the United States this fall. He calls it “SuperLive” betting, and as the name suggests, immediacy is key to its appeal. Instead of setting odds on, say, Bubba to win the Players, or to shoot a lower second-round score than Jordan Spieth, or to best Billy Horschel in the event, the system churns out probabilities on Bubba’s prospects, shot by shot. It does so simultaneously for multiple players in headline groups, whipping up a storm of mid-tournament gambling action.

De Knijff knows there is a market for this kind of wagering. It’s already big across the pond, where the London office of Metric Gaming, the company de Knijff founded in 2012, generates “SuperLive” golf lines in high-wattage tournaments for several major sports books throughout the year, at a rate of some 5,000 separate lines per event.

It’s all done on the up and up: Sports betting is legal in much of Europe, as it likely will be soon across much of the United States, now that a federal prohibition on it has been lifted. With the Supreme Court’s recent decision to scrap the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, states now have the right to allow sports gambling. In the wake of the ruling, New Jersey, Connecticut, West Virginia and Mississippi have already stamped new laws that do just that.

OH, MY GOODNESS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! In the words of former Congress and gif extraordinaire Ron Paul:

This is both fantastic news and the absolute worst news all in one. On the plus side, I get to bet on Tiger winning every tournament known to man, and there could be some amazing prop bets (DJ hits a drive over 375, anyone?). I also think that, like gambling on football and basketball, it will bring more eyes to the game. Imagine Tiger coming down 18 at the PGA, tied for the lead, with a birdie putt, and half the room at a Vegas sportsbook has put down a cool 100 for him to win at 16/1 odds. That room would be absolutely ELECTRIFYING. Now imagine that happening across the country, and people will be glued to their TV set (or their online stream: it is 2018 after all). This would be amazing for golf.

On the opposite end, this will probably end up in all degenerate gamblers, who also happen to be golf fans, finally losing every last bit of their money. Yep, you know exactly who you are, and while I may not enjoy gambling as much as most of you, I would probably dabble for the big tournaments. The amount of money that people would lose on golf would be astronomical.

But overall, this could big a big positive for golf. If the PGA decides to actually get involved as well, then we could have live betting during tournaments right from our phones. Hopefully, this will happen one day!